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Aerobic exercise may be as effective as antidepressants if you work out enough, say scientists at the Cooper Institute in Golden, Colorado, and other medical centers.  In a 12-week study of 80 people with midle to moderate depression, researchers found that working up a sweat on a treadmill or stationary bike reduced symptoms by 47%.  That’s similar to the effect of antidepressants.  But the amount of activity is key.  Only those who worked out for three hours a week got the mood-bursting benefit.  Thsoe who exercised just 80 minutes a week had no improvement.  The researchers still don’t know exactly how exercisse helps, but they specualte that aerobic activity increases levels of serotonin and other brain chemicals that regulate mood.  Talk to your doctor before you choose walking, biking or jogging ober therapy or drugs.

I have to start this by saying, I have friends and family who have and continue to suffer with depression.  I have suffered with depression.  SEVERE DEPRESSION.  I know it is not a joke.  It is not a made up condition.  Depression is a real health condition, a real problem, an actual sickness that requires patience, treatment, understanding, prayer, sometimes medication and therapy, but it is real.  If you are around someone who is battling depression, help them, offer support and encouragement, pray for them.  Recognize that because depression is not a readily physically recognizable condition, it is just as real as cancer, diabetes, paralysis, muscular sclerosis, and others.  In fact, by the time depression has manifested itself physically, it is in an advanced stage.  Depression is real and I encourage you to treat it as a real health conditiion.